With gas shortages plaguing consumers, a transportation system in gridlock and underwater, 37 lives lost, and an estimated $20 billion in damages to his city, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg decided it was time to act.

So he pulled out his checkbook and scratched a $1.1 million donation to those in need … an obscure congressional candidate in Florida, Val Demings.

Demings is a gun-control nut cut from the same cloth as Bloomberg, and is best known for having her own weapon stolen from a police vehicle. She is running against incumbent Daniel Webster.

Never mind that Hurricane Sandy has left the city he is supposed to be governing with large areas under water, looting problems, gas shortages,and a frightening array of health concerns.

Forget the crippling damage to NYC’s public transit systems. Oh no, forget the actual disaster happening all around, forget the the fact that our nation’s largest city is literally drowning right now, let’s screw with Florida’s elections!

Of course, I guess this shouldn’t be surprising from one of the worst nanny-state meddling politicians in recent American history. Bloomberg is, after all, the same goofball who wants to outlaw large sodas. [Insert mind-numbingly obvious comment that anyone can just buy two sodas to get around this ridiculous rule here.]

There must be some cruelly ironic joke being played on New York City’s hurricane-soaked residents. As thousands of New Yorkers still sit in the dark, unarmed, vulnerable, and worried about looters, the Big Apple’s billionaire mayor is sending $1.1 million to Florida to buy ads for union-bought, gun-control advocate and congressional candidate Val Demings.

One political consultant called the donation ‘considerable’ and ‘extremely significant’. At the same time however, due to the state of the race in Florida, it has been dubbed ‘a waste of money’.

You know who might benefit from that $1.1 million? The residents of Mayor Bloomberg’s city. Maybe the Red Cross. Perhaps the people burned out of their homes in Breezy Point.

It must be nice to have the luxury of throwing money away, while residents of your city struggle to recover from a devastating storm.

In this afternoon’s broadcast of Andrea Mitchell Reports, Mitchell accused Romney of surreptitious campaigning, and asked what are the true intentions of Governor Romney collecting storm supplies after a hurricane. With Chris Cillizza, who writes Washington Post’s The Fix blog, Andrea Mitchell nonsensically noted how donations are the most effective forms of assistance in situations like this because there is no packaging involved. Mitchell revealed herself, yet again, as a liberal hack, and someone who is absent minded when it comes to common sense. There are 7.5 million people without power, and how dare Mitt Romney try to help those in need.

Additionally, Mitchell’s colleague, Martin Bashir, added to this anti-charity narrative on his show this afternoon with “Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Lehigh professor James Peterson [saying], Mayor Reed, so the Red Cross knows what it’s doing. Did he, did you detect perhaps a subtle dig there on Mr. Romney who spent today going against the guidelines established by the Red Cross and holding a campaign rally in Ohio that was dressed up like a charity drive collecting food and other supplies when the Red Cross expressly asked people not to do that?”

NewsBusters colleague Noel Sheppard aptly said, “Imagine that. A presidential candidate who gives millions of dollars a year to charity does a storm relief event in Ohio, and an MSNBC anchor is disgusted by it because the Red Cross would prefer people donating cash.”

Of course, had Romney simply cut a check to the Red Cross you know these same hacks would be piling on him for being too rich, out of touch, and lacking in compassion.

Oddly enough, they weren’t nearly as critical of the President who instead of actually holding a relief effort, was busy trying to convince supporters in hurricane ravaged areas to phone bank for his re-election campaign.